Can I become more patient? Do I need to? How can I be as patient as paper?
Paper doesn't rush you. It sits and waits. Even if your pen hovers in the air, the paper remains still. When you're ready and your pen touches the surface, the paper begins to speak.
A conversation starts. The paper tells you what you're struggling to explain to yourself.
Paper doesn't rush you. If you need to take a breath, it will wait. It listens but doesn't guide. It doesn't offer annoying, pushy advice. It doesn't judge you for talking about trivial matters. Paper knows what you want to say before you know it yourself. It understands that time and patience are needed for you to work through the issue and reach the deeper truth.
Paper is patient. It knows that difficult conversations start slowly. But as you become more comfortable, the pace picks up. You become immersed in your words, and soon the conversation flows like a river breaking through a dam. You are absorbed in the dialogue. The paper listens without interrupting. You never feel judged by the paper. It doesn't impose its opinions or force its views on you. The paper doesn't look down on you. You realize that the paper is the perfect listener.
The paper allows you to keep talking and teaches you what you need to know at the right moment.
Paper is wonderful. It always seems to understand your deepest feelings and mental processes. The paper empathises with whatever happens, as if it shares the same experiences.
This is the true power and patience of paper. It knows that this conversation won't reach its depths in one sitting. It knows you will need to sit and talk many times.
But the paper knows you will come back after the first conversation.
Paper patiently waits for you to resolve your issues because it doesn't care. In this moment, the most important person to the paper is you, but it has no vested interest. Your state doesn't affect the paper. The paper knows its strength. No matter what you say, it won't affect the paper. The paper knows its power and knows that the moment will come when your words are exhausted and your pen stops. Self-indulgence has its limits.
Paper is a master of timing. It knows the moment you will wake up. It can deliver harsh truths you weren't ready to hear, but the paper knew you needed them.
Paper tells you what others are afraid to say and what you need to say to yourself.
The patience of paper makes this seem natural. In natural progression, it speaks in words you understand. Now you are ready for these conversations. The beauty of paper lies in how it speaks, explains, and expresses itself. There is no confusion. You feel as though you always knew these things. Deep down, you have always known.
Be more like paper with yourself. Lift the pen, take a breath.
Be like paper with others, too. Don't think ahead or impose your opinions. See them as the pen, and yourself as the blank paper they write on. Paper doesn't judge; neither should you.